Jane Dryden

Interim Program Director, Health Studies; Associate Professor and Program Advisor, Philosophy
Office
Hart Hall 104

Biography

Dr. Jane Dryden received her PhD at Fordham University in 2008, after completing her BA at the University of Toronto (University College) in 2002. Her dissertation worked to connect feminist work on relational autonomy with the ideas of freedom and interdependency found in German Idealism (Fichte and Hegel). Her research interests include 19th century German philosophy, feminist philosophy, and philosophy of disability. Teaching interests include these, and also aesthetics, biomedical ethics, and the history of philosophy in general.

Personal website which has links to some of her research work: janedryden.weebly.com

Publications

Relatively Recent Publications

2023. "The Gut Microbiome and the Imperative of Normalcy," International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring): 131-162.

2023. "Disability, Teleology and Human Development in German Idealism: Exploring Disability in the History of Philosophy," Journal of Philosophy of Disability, published online first (will be in no. 3, Fall 2023). 

2022. "Responding to Gut Issues: Insights from Disability Theory," Canadian Journal of Practical Philosophy, vol. 8, no. 1: 1-23. 

2021. “Food Choices and Gut Issues,” special issue of Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, “Feminism and Food,” vol. 7 no. 3 (September).   

2021. “Hegel’s Anthropology: Transforming the Body,” in Hegel’s Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences: A Critical Guide, edited by Sebastian Stein and Joshua Wretzel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 127-147. 

2021. “Disabled Bodies as ‘Instigators for Change’: Imagining Another World,” essay in Automatisme Ambulatoire: Hysteria, Imitation, Performance exhibition catalogue, Owens Art Gallery: 45-59. 

2018. "Guest Editor's Introduction, Philosophy and its Borders," Dialogue 57 (2): 203-216.  (Link to published version of Dialogue intro here.)

"Digestion, Habit, and Being at Home: Hegel and the Gut as Ambiguous Other," PhaenEx: Journal of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture vol. 11 no. 2 (2016): 1-22.

“Hegel, Feminist Philosophy, and Disability: Rereading our History,” Disability Studies Quarterly vol. 33 no. 4 (October 2013); special issue on “Improving Feminist Philosophy and Theory by Taking Account of Disability,” edited by Shelley Tremain.

“Embodiment and Vulnerability in Fichte and Hegel,” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, Vol. 52 no. 1 (March 2013): 109-128.

“Evil and Moral Responsibility in J.G. Fichte’s The Vocation of Man,” in Fichte’s Vocation of Man: New Interpretative and Critical Essays, edited by Daniel Breazeale (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2013). (Volume of papers from Tenth Biennial Meeting of the North American Fichte Society)

Education

Fordham University, Bronx, NY

Ph.D. Degree conferred May, 2008.

Dissertation Title: Relational Autonomy: Bridging a Gap Between Feminism and German Idealism

Director: Dr. Michael Baur

M.A. Degree conferred in course, 2005

University of Toronto (University College) Toronto, Ontario

B.A., Philosophy Degree conferred, with High Distinction, 2002

Teaching

Fall 2023:

PHIL 1611: Self, Society, and Freedom
PHIL 3250: 19th Century German Philosophy (full year)

Winter 2024:

PHIL 3250: 19th Century German Philosophy (continued from fall term)
PHIL 3741: Philosophy of Disability
PHIL 3991B: Non-Ideal Theory

Grants, awards & honours

SSHRC Connections Grant for “Philosophy and its Borders” Canadian Society for Women in Philosophy conference at Mount Allison University, 2016-2017; Co-Investigators Dr. Anna Mudde (U. of Regina) and Dr. Sylvia Burrow (Cape Breton U).

J.E.A. Crake Teaching Award in the Faculty of Arts, Mount Allison, 2012